After assuring Bessie she would be fine multiple times Joey managed to finish getting her things packed in Jack's car. Jack and Jen had already brought most of their things up which left a lot of room in the truck for her few things. Jack was already blasting music from the car radio, singing along as Joey said goodbye to Bessie and Bodie. She hugged Alexander for a few moments, kissing his head and getting in the car before she could cry. She had already said her goodbyes to Dawson's parents and picked up her last check from the yacht club. She realized, looking out at the creek from her spot in the car as Jack started driving, that no matter how much she wanted to get out of this town growing up that she was going to miss it.
She was just putting away the last of her clothes when a blonde headed bombshell came rushing into the room, throwing a bag onto her bed.
"Hey Roomie!" The new girl shouted, dropping down on the bed Joey hadn't claimed. "I'm Audrey!" She told her, as some guys came in dropping some more suitcases and boxes down near Audrey. "Thanks boys." She told them with a flirtatious wink.
"I'm Joey." She told her with a small wave, closing the closet and dropping to sit cross legged on her bed.
"Well Joey, what do you say we do some roommate bonding and get ready for all the parties tonight?" Audrey asked her, dumping the clothes from her suitcase onto the floor, making piles.
"Yea sure. I think the upperclassman dorm next door has a party going on tonight." Joey informed her, passing her the flyer that she had founder under the door when she first got there.
"Sounds perfect!" Audrey told her, glancing at the flier before going back to her clothes. "So are we thinking casual jeans and a hoodie, slutty dress, or somewhere in the middle?" She asked Joey, throwing a few options on the bed.
"Probably somewhere in the middle." Joey told her, holding up a strappy tank that tied a few places in the back, leaving most of her back open.
"I love that!" Audrey told her, before pulling up a simple black tank with low cleavage from one of the piles. Once they had both decided on what they were going to wear they sat back down on their beds. "So give me all the dets! You got a boyfriend back home?"
"Not really, no." Joey said, thinking first of Pacey sailing away before they decided if they were still even friends, and then of Dawson and their weird goodbye kiss. "You?" She asked.
"Nope, I'm a no strings attached kind of gal." Audrey smiled, somehow showing off almost all of her perfectly white teeth.
"So where is home?" She asked Audrey, noticing the girl tense a little at the question.
"Here and there. My parents call California home most of the year, we have a couple beach houses here and there. I wouldn't call any of them home exactly."
"Oh." Joey wasn't sure what to say. She had met a lot of the 'elite' of society. All the teenage boys comparing the sizes of their daddy's yachts. Usually she was serving them or pumping gas into their boats, not on equal footing with them.
"So where are you from? Actually let me guess! Small town? Only one stoplight type of town?" She questioned, looking excited at the possibility.
"Two stoplights actually. They just put the other one in two years ago. Capeside, its actually not far from here." She told her, not sure what else to say. What can you say about the town that you hated but that contributed so much to yourself?
"Cute boys? I always dreamed of living in a small town and falling in love with the boy next door who just happened to be the most attractive guy in the state." Audrey told her, leaning forward with her elbows in her knees.
"Some cute boys. My boy next door was Dawson. Total day dreamer, he is in LA now actually. He is going to be a director." She smiled, thinking about how even if everything else in her life changed, Dawson and his dreaming was like a North star. "The most attractive guy in the state would have to be Jack. Total hottie." She informed Audrey, laughing.
"Oh, now this I need details for!" Audrey told her.
"Well he moved to Capeside with his sister Sophomore year. She was a total Harvard bound girl. Only person who studied more then me probably. She is taking a year off in Europe." At Audrey's suggestive cough she remembered her train of thought. "Oh and Jack. Well he came to work for my family's business. I was dating Dawson at the time, but what can a girl do when she isn't sure how she is feeling and in walks this totally adorable guy who listens to her and has an interest in art?"
"Okay so let me get this straight you are dating your boy next door so that makes Jack the bad boy right?" Audrey looked excited at all the drama.
"No not exactly. Jack was more or less just a fling. Turns out I'm not really his type." She almost laughed at Audrey's confused expression.
"So what he wanted some slut or was it a blonde/brunette thing?" She asked.
"Nope! More of a lacking certain parts thing." At Audrey's stunned facial expression Joey really did laugh. "He is gay!" She said thru her laughter. Soon Audrey was joining in on the laughter.
"So you had a relationship with a boy next door and with a gay guy? What kind of small town did you live in? I'm so jealous!" Audrey told her once they had gotten their laughter under control. Joey froze, looking confused. She had never really thought anyone could be jealous of her life. "So was there a bad boy? Or any other guys?" Audrey asked her.
"Eh what about you?" Joey asked her, silently hoping she didn't push it. Joking about the situation with Jack was something they all did often to get over the awkwardness that was Sophomore year. And the Dawson thing had been talked over so many times before that it wasn't even a big deal to talk about it anymore. She did like the new title of that relationship, ' the boy next door' instead of 'soulmate' was a nice change. But the Pacey of it all was different for some reason.
"Well there have been a few guys. My first boyfriend, David, was a total sweetheart, we met at one of those summer camps my parents sent me to every year so they didn't have to see me all summer. He was my first, and everything. Broke up at the end of the summer, his parents were moving and we already were looking at a long distance thing when school started back up since I was at the private school a whole twenty minutes away but four hours was just to far. That was freshman year. Then there were a couple boyfriends here and there, mostly to make my parents mad. Greg who was a drummer in a band. Pete, who was this total hunk of a T.a. that one was doomed from the start. Then there was Chris. He was my on again off again boyfriend in highschool. Let me cry about my parents or the guys who were total jerks to me. We actually broke up not long ago. Different sides of the country and everything." She told Joey, who was amazed at how much she could say without really breathing.
"So the perfect boyfriend, the friend who was also a boyfriend, the mad at the parents boys, and a teacher?" Joey summed up, trying not to think of Pacey. Teacher/student relationships would make anyone think of him she tried to justify to herself.
"Well technically he was a t.a. So he wasn't like twenty years older then me or anything. But that's pretty much it. So far at least." She winked at Joey, who held a straight face for a few seconds, before laughing.
"We had this big scandal Sophomore year with a teacher and a student." Joey said after a couple minutes of silence. 'Talk about him without mentioning his name, good plan' she told herself.
"Really? Your town really did have everything! So what happened?" Audrey did love a good story. And Joey realized she kind of liked being the one with the stories.
"Well he was a classmate of mine and she was this bombshell of a teacher. They got together and were keeping it a pretty good secret, only his best friend knew. Then it came out and he defended her, said nothing happened. She quit her job and left. I don't think anyone has really heard from her since."
"And he was okay? I mean I've done the older guy thing and it's always a bad idea to have a serious relationship with such a big age gap I think."
"Yea, he seemed to be okay. Kissed me, fell for Jack's sister, you know guy way of dealing with things I guess." She explained awkwardly. She hadn't thought in years about how Pacey was effected by the whole situation. He always seemed okay, but then again that was kind of his coping mechanism.
"So how was the kiss?" Audrey asked.
"Confusing." Joey told her with a small laugh. "Shouldn't we be getting ready?" She jumped up, hoping to avoid the rest of that conversation for a while.